PDIC hastens insurance claim settlement (Sabong News)

The time spent in settling insurance claims and resolving loan accounts in closed banks was significantly reduced following the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (PDIC) shift to digital platforms, the Department of Finance (DOF) said. Roberto B. Tan, PDIC president and chief executive officer said the use of digital platforms enabled the company to significantly cut its clearing time in settling a total of 19,184 deposit insurance claims and in resolving over 30,000 loan accounts in closed banks in 2021. Tan said deposit insurance claims filed last year involving 10 banks with no more than 3,000 accounts each were settled in 17 to 22 working days, significantly faster over its target of 27 working days. Meanwhile, all deposit insurance claims filed in two larger banks with over 3,000 to 10,000 accounts each were settled in 37 to 40 working days, an improvement over its target of 41 working days. Additionally, the PDIC chief also reported that insured deposits paid in closed banks grew from P219.68 million in 2020 to P471.15 million in 2021. In cleaning up its non-cash portfolio, Tan disclosed that the 30,384 loan accounts resolved in 2021 were 70 percent higher than its target of 17,826 loan accounts for a three-year period from 2019 to 2021. The PDIC has resolved a total of 79,474 loan accounts. Tan also said the PDIC’s target of disposing of 807 real properties also improved as it completed the disposal of 1,141 real properties in 2021— bringing total asset disposal to 3,551 properties since 2019. The PDIC manages a total inventory of 32,000 real properties and a five-year asset disposal program has been drawn up to expedite the disposal process. The PDIC chief reported that the corporation continued last year the implementation of electronic filing and payment arrangements to settle deposit insurance claims; and electronic bidding of properties as a new normal approach to asset disposal. These online channels include the web-based claim form made available by the PDIC on its website; and payment channels such as PesoNet, Instapay, and other electronic money issuers. “We also continued the use of digital media platforms and local information networks to provide prompt and continuing information to depositors and other clients,” Tan said in his report to Finance Secretary and PDIC Board Chairman Carlos G. Dominguez III. He said the implementation of PDIC’s Closed Bank Loan Incentive Program (CLIP), which offers easy payment and zero penalty initiative to borrowers of banks that were ordered closed by the Monetary Board (MB), also helped speed up the resolution of loan accounts. CLIP offers substantial discounts to closed-bank borrowers with principal loan balances of P1 million and below and who will opt to pay through a one-time cash settlement. Tan said the PDIC under the Duterte administration will continue to expand the use of electronic modes of settling deposit insurance claims as part of the Corporation’s digitalization efforts. Aimed at further improving its customer services and operational efficiency, the PDIC completed the implementation of 7 of its 16 major information and communications technology (ICT) projects in 2021. The corporation also contributed in improving the ease of doing business as it initiated the streamlining of interagency processing of proposed mergers, consolidations, and acquisitions of banks, cutting almost half the number of documentary requirements from 58 to 30, and shortening the processing time from 160 to 55 days. The PDIC likewise reported that the strength of its Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) continued to be built up, increasing the DIF level by 13.8 percent from P214.44 billion in 2020 to P243.87 billion in 2021. Meanwhile its corporate assets stood at P305.86 billion, or 12.4 percent higher than the P272. billion in 2020. Assessment collections from banks also grew by 8.3 percent from P27.52 billion in 2020 to P29.81 billion in 2021.